“For I love godliness, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings”.

[For more on this subject, consult the book: Do Not Kill The Animals, Do Not Eat Their Flesh]

the real sacrifice?

The only sacrifice that man knows and that God strongly condemns is the one which consists in taking the life of an animal, and where a beast is slain in honor of a Divinity. God forbids this sinister sacrifice.

The real sacrifice is not the one where an animal is slain, no, the real sacrifice is the ceremony thanks to which one seeks to please God, the Supreme Person, to Him to please.

Every human being must seek to know if God is satisfied with his behavior, his acts. In other words, all of our actions should work towards the satisfaction of the Lord. Each of us should be concerned with whether Krishna, God, the Supreme Person is satisfied with his actions. Activities aimed at the pleasure of the Lord are prescribed in the holy scriptures, and performing them constitutes a sacrifice.

In other words, acting for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord, Krishna, is called sacrifice. We must act only for the satisfaction of the Lord. This action takes the name of devotional service, and it is free from all karma. To act in the consciousness of God amounts to making sacrifices.

Man must sacrifice his time and his money for the satisfaction of the Supreme Being. Action should be offered as a sacrifice to God, lest it bind its author to the material world, which is a world of suffering.

The action performed as devotional service not only preserves the person concerned from the reactions of karma, it gradually raises him to the service of spiritual love offered to the Lord, which is the key to accessing the kingdom of God.

Let us know that any act accomplished apart from the sacrifice binds its author to matter and retains him prisoner of this material world. If we do not act for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord, Krishna, then we will be chained to the consequences of our actions. We must not act for our own pleasure, but for the pleasure of God.

This is what is meant by sacrifice.

In truth, all divine beings, heavenly beings, are satisfied when one performs a sacrifice. In the present age of discord, strife, hypocrisy and sin, the original scriptures indicate that intelligent men, in order to maintain peace and prosperity in society must make the only suitable sacrifice. singing the hymn of the Holy Names of the Lord;